From Matt:
Why don't the anti-SUV people just come out and admit that what they really want is gasoline rationing. Am I more evil for driving an SUV, yet working at home so I don't have to commute every day as compared to someone who drives a Geo and commutes 150 miles round trip every day? The rational answer would be no, but that doesn't stop you from sneering at me on the freeway or taking a photograph of me for your website as an example of what not to do, while at the same time giving high-fives to the guy in the Geo.
The same thing goes with carpoolers.....what is worse....the carpool of four that drives 800 miles a week or the lone driver that drives 100 miles a week?
If you want to ration gasoline, that is fine, just come out and say it.
Gaspig: ration your gasoline... hmm, hadn't thought of that. congrats on your home job! what about the lone expedition driver making that 100 mile a day commute? so i take it you're a rancher?
Matt: Actually, I'm an environmental consultant. Been working at home for about 5 years and wouldn't have it any other way.
Yes the lone Expedition driver that has a long commute is not good, but it's not fair to punish me for the actions of others. That is why gasoline rationing is the only fair solution if you want to insist something must be done. At least that way I could take my unused ration and sell it on the blackmarket for $10 or $20 a gallon.
It's also not fair to single out someone just because they happen to be driving an SUV and that was the real point I was trying to make. There has been groups that have gone around and put nasty bumper stickers on SUVs, and a certain website that has photographs of people driving alone in SUVs like they are evil people causing the end of civilization as we know it. If you want to be fair you should be attacking people that use more than 20 gallons of gasoline per week, irregardless of what kind of vehicle they happen to drive. Problem is that is a little more difficult to track and doesn't get the attention of the people that are just jealous because they can only affor a Honda.
Gaspig: i'm a photographer, it's what i do. perhaps i could write an essay about the suv trend and write about 150 to 200 pound people running errands and commuting to work in 6000 pound vehicles. but the photos say it much better... shots up the street with 11suvs and 2cars say a lot more about the trend than my whining about it. the photos are not an attack on anyone - they're a commentary about a growing trend. i drove an suv for years and i'm surrounded by inlaws and outlaws and family members who still drive suvs. so we're not tagging anyone's suv or trying to ruin anyone's day. in the photos, the people and their license plates and even the area around them are completely blurred out. the photos show big top heavy vehicles with burly tires rolling along paved roads, and parking lots loaded with suvs and trucks. what you read into the photos is yours alone - there's nothing in there about "evil people".
i don't know about rationing and honestly i'm not out to impose regulations or anything. the website is more of an observation and commentary, a perspective.
maybe i've bought into a left wing conspiracy. but i'm in pretty good company. if the warnings from the scientific community are such a joke then why are the leaders of nations around the world taking them so seriously? i've heard things like "they're just jealous of our way of life." sure, that explains everything. also, gas isn't an infinite resource, maybe we should save some for the kids. i don't know the figures but at the pump, aren't we sending money to regions where people hate americans? maybe if we guzzled a little less we'd be less dependent.
Matt: Fair enough....I don't disagree with you that dependence on foreign oil is a problem and that low MPG vehicles contribute to that problem as well as other problems such as air pollution. I don't even disagree with alot of the info on your website. Although I will point out that nowhere on your website does it discuss ways to avoid trips in the first place, irregardless of what type of vehicle it is. Someone who owns an SUV and decides to walk to the store instead of driving is helping out much more than the person in a Honda that drives to the store.
I'm just trying to point out that focusing solely on the MPG aspect of it is easy to do, but misses the whole other half of the equation which is how many miles a person drives. For that reason, I don't think picking on SUV's is fair. If someone can afford to pay the extra cost of owning an SUV, and by the way all the extra taxes that come along with that, then good for them. That is the great thing about a more-or-less free market economy. That person is also more likely to be able to afford a FastTrack transponder meaning they won't waste as much gas sitting in traffic on the 91 freeway (if you're familiar at all with Los Angeles, which from you're photos it looks like you are in Los Angeles area).
A fair solution would mean someone who drives 100 miles in a car that gets 50 MPG would pay exactly the same penalty as someone who drives 50 miles in a car that gets 25 MPG. Neither person is any better than the other.
Such a solution might be to increase gas taxes, ration gasoline, or artificially control the supply of oil to force a price increase since those would uniformly apply to everyone depending solely on how much gasoline they used. I don't necessarily approve of any of these alternatives, but at least they are fair.
An example of an unfair solution would be to ban outright thru regulations the manufactur of SUVs or levy penalty taxes on low MPG vehicles.
Bottom line is the real problem is with how much gas we use not how many MPG our car gets, even though they are related.
Gaspig: actually i don't have much in the way of solutions posted on the website. i'm answering some emails and will soon post some other points people have brought up. if its cool with you i'd like to post our exchange and some of the ideas you've brought up. that way some ideas or at least food for thought about possible solutions from a variety of people would actually be posted on the site. i wouldn't post your name or email unless you were ok with it....
these issues rarely come in black and white. people a lot smarter than me completely disagree on plans of action, or even if there's a problem to start with.... i knew that going into this. the site i posted clearly takes one side of the debate but i'd like it to also be informative so i'm happy to post perspectives that differ from mine, in fact if you check the links page, there are links to a few totally pro-suv websites. but of course, it's my little corner of the wwweb so mostly its a one sided presentation.
conservation is the key, one way or another. i'm pushing fuel efficient cars at 40mpg.com but i'm all about posting other ideas.... kids crawling on the computer so my times up...
Matt: Look forward to seeing what you come up with.